Before You Buy a Homesite at Saratay Falls: The 2007 Line That Shapes What You Can Build
Saratay Falls is a gated enclave of 20 custom estates outside Cashiers. Its wooded homesites start at one acre, with lots marketed from the $300s and a private 40-foot waterfall. The builder's materials put the homesites between 1.0 and 2.09 acres. Most buyers compare lots by acreage and view. For a lot this new, though, the plat records less than one date and one measurement that Jackson County applies before anyone breaks ground.
That date is August 2007. Jackson County adopted its Mountain and Hillside Development ordinance then, and lots recorded before it were grandfathered from many of its requirements, according to Smoky Mountain News. Saratay Falls has been marketed since about 2021. On a homesite that new, the protection older plateau lots carry by default is something to confirm, not assume.
The ordinance is now Section 5.8 of the Jackson County Unified Development Ordinance. The UDO took effect August 6, 2019, and carried earlier ordinances forward without interruption. Folding the hillside rules into a new document did not reset their clock.
Section 5.8 sets up a Mountain and Hillside Development District through a map of every area in the county with a slope of 35 percent or more. The map flags properties that need further analysis. Inside that district, the section applies to subdivision plats, land-disturbing activity, building permits and other development proposals. The county enforces it at the first approval the owner applies for.
The exemption is short. The owner of any lot of record that existed when the ordinance took effect may build one single-family home on it. That home is exempt from most of the section but still has to follow the rules on minimum alterations, cut and fill, compaction of fill, driveways, partial screening and the county's best management practices. The ordinance also notes that lots in subdivisions with vested rights may not be lots of record, and it treats them separately.
A homesite created after 2007 does not qualify just because it is now individually recorded. Whether a given Saratay Falls lot sits inside the mapped district, and whether any vested-rights or prior-approval status applies to it, comes from the county file and the recorded plats. The marketing pages don't answer it. Our research did not turn up a county approval or plat date for Saratay Falls, so these are questions for Jackson County Planning, asked lot by lot.
If the section does apply, the key figure is average slope. Its most useful feature for a buyer is what it measures. For an individual building site, the calculation covers only the building and grading envelope for that site. For a subdivision, it covers the entire tract.
So the slope that matters for a house at Saratay Falls is the slope of the ground you plan to build on, not the lot's general character. The county's formula is S = .0023 × I × L ÷ A. I is the map's contour interval in feet, which can be no more than five. L is the total length of contour lines in the parcel, and A is its area in acres. The result is rounded to the nearest whole number. In practice, tighter contour lines inside the area you outline produce a steeper number. Two buyers looking at the same acre could get different results depending on where each one draws the house.
The number matters because Section 5.8 ties density to it. Table 5.3 sets the minimum lot area for each slope percentage and allows one dwelling per minimum lot area.
| Average slope | Minimum lot area |
|---|---|
| 35% | 2.0 acres |
| 38% | 2.81 acres |
| 40% | 3.52 acres |
| 45% | 6.21 acres |
| 50% and greater | 10.0 acres |
Saratay Falls homesites run from one acre to just over two. Every figure in that table is at or above the largest of them. How the table applies to a specific lot in an already-platted subdivision depends on that lot's history, which is why lot status belongs at the front of diligence rather than after closing.
The sequence is where buyers get caught off guard, because the slope review comes before everything else.
For single-family lots under the section, the building and grading envelope may not exceed the greater of 10,000 square feet or twice the building footprint without Planning Board approval. Apart from a driveway for access, no other disturbance or impervious surface is permitted on the lot.
This is where the rules meet the design brief. A one-acre lot covers about 43,560 square feet. Under the cap, the main house, terraces, a lawn, an outdoor fireplace terrace and any detached guest quarters all have to fit inside one envelope. For a large footprint, twice the footprint becomes the operative limit. Driveways carry their own requirements under Section 4.3.5, which apply even to undeveloped lots of record. They must keep land coverage and soil disturbance to the minimum feasible and preserve as many existing trees as possible.
None of this is a prohibition. A Jackson County official told the planning board in 2015 that the ordinance addresses steep slope construction but does not prohibit it. Depending on the project, an applicant may need to submit more information or studies first. In practice, the house gets designed around the envelope, and the envelope has to be known before the architect's drawings are final.
The second gate runs alongside the first. Jackson County's development checklist tells owners without public sewer to apply for an Environmental Health site evaluation, and septic approval is required before building permits. The application asks for the property plat, the proposed building location and the number of bedrooms.
That means the septic application is tied to a specific house location and bedroom count. Both of those are shaped by the slope determination and the grading envelope.
The fee schedule effective July 1, 2026 lists improvement permit fees as follows.
A four-bedroom plan comes to $600 in listed fees before any separate charges. The fees are small. The more consequential gap is time, because the county materials we reviewed give no processing-time estimate. A buyer who wants a site evaluation finished during the contract's due diligence period is working against a clock the county doesn't publish. Whether to extend that period is a question to raise with your attorney early, before the period runs short.
Has Section 5.8 changed since 2019? The county-hosted UDO still contains Section 5.8 as described here, but it has no visible revision history. The county's code on Municode is codified through a February 17, 2026 amendment, and Municode itself cautions that its text may not reflect the latest legislation. Jackson County Planning can confirm the current text for a specific lot.
Can I prepare the plot plan myself? For a single home site, the ordinance allows a plot plan drawn from the Jackson County GIS mapping system without professional help if it is accurate enough. The same section also calls for preparation by a registered surveyor, civil engineer or other qualified professional, showing finished floor elevation relative to the ridge. The planning office can say which standard applies to a given lot before you commission work.
Does an addition later face the same review? On lots of record with homes approved before the section took effect, additions may skip the compliance showing if they stay within the height limit, need only minimal disturbance and fit the ordinance's intent as the Planning Director judges it. On newer lots, the envelope approved for the original house is the baseline for any later change.
At Michelle Michaud, we start every Saratay Falls homesite conversation with the lot's recorded history, its slope determination and its septic timing, so the house you design is one the county will permit. If you are weighing a homesite purchase or preparing a lot for sale, Schedule a Complimentary Luxury Listing Consultation and we will go through that lot's file with you before the due diligence period starts.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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